Hillary
Clinton has won the second presidential debate according to voters, the first
opinion poll has found.

The CNN
poll found 57 per cent of people feel Ms Clinton won the debate, compared to 34
per cent of voters who felt Donald Trump performed best.

The heated
debate took place following one of the most dramatic and bitter weekends in the
election, after footage emerged of Mr Trump allegedly discussing groping women.
Mr Trump was challenged by the convenor about his comments. He responded that
he was "embarassed" by his comments but said "I have great
respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women than I do."

Mr Trump
responded by criticising Ms Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton,
accusing his of abusing women. In a press conference held before the debate, Mr
Trump sat with alleged victims of Mr Clinton who accused him of rape and sexual
harassment.

“Mine were
words, his was action,” Mr Trump said of Mr Clinton.

“What he's
done to women, there's never been any body in the history of politics in this
nation that's been so abusive to women.”

Mrs
Clinton said the comments made by her Republican rival in the recording
represented “exactly who he is”.

She added:
“We've seen him insult women, we've seen him rate women on their appearance, ranking
them from one to 10, we've seen him embarrass women on TV and on Twitter.”

The debate
was the second of three televised head-to-head between the two candidates.

The debate
took a 'town hall' format, inviting questions from the audience and also sourcing
them from social media.